This is not a wine tour, it is a booze-up and a sales pitch. The reason I say this is because on a tour I expect to see and tour the vineyard, see the winery and winemaking facilities, maybe meet and talk to the winemaker/assistant and then finally taste the wines that have been produced. This is not what happens here, in this tour you arrive at the vineyard get taken to a room and given 3/4 wines that have already been poured 1st stop with a brief description of said wine then it is on to the shop... The second location served all the wines in the same glass although the wines were good, they also serve you a gourmet picnic lunch which we will get to shortly. The final location was nice and gave you a list of 5 wines which you could change for any of the wines they offer for an additional US8.
The lunch... This was hardly a gourmet picnic lunch, as one of my party members said where are the vol-au-vents? it was a mountain of turkey meat served in very thick semi-fresh bread with Lays Crisps. This is, at best, a poor example of a sandwich which frankly was not worth the price and had I known I would have bought my own.
The bus driver now there is a character. We started off with him looking at his phone and driving in two lanes to having to stop because the onboard computer had a warning light, which surely should have been dealt with prior to us departing. When we arrived at the North Fork the driver took the wrong road and needed to be told by the tour guide where to go. The driver then took a turn to a bridge with a 3-ton limit - it was a 5-ton bus. This was followed by a 45 point turn to head in the correct direction. When the tour guide pointed out the right vineyard the brakes were slammed on with an alarming ferocity so that the turn was not missed. Which was unnecessary as this was not the correct turn, that was the next one. On top of all this, he was doing 65Mph in a 45Mph zone.
The tour guide although a very nice man knew nothing at all about the wine.
So can I recommend this tour? If you want to get drunk and learn nothing about the wines or the region and you are 21 then go ahead. If you wish to actually learn anything about said wine, the region, the people - buy the Oxford Companion to Wine and stay at home reading it.
It was wonderful tour fm NYC. And transportation was also confortable. If you love wines, join this tour next time !